2004
Adding Gay Marriage to Rent: Director Chris Columbus revealed one major plot point he is adding to the movie version of Rent. “It speaks about having tolerance for all kinds of people and it talks about the fact that two gay people can be in love and deserve to be married. It’s one thing we deal with in the movie that wasn’t in the play, the concept of gay marriage, so we have a little bit about that. I could be shooting myself in the foot in terms of box office, I don’t care. I really believe strongly in this material.”
Dialogue vs. Story in Rent: “There are dialogue sequences in the movie,” Columbus said. “We had to do that. We couldn’t do it as a straightforward opera. So there were some songs that have been left out. I won’t mention them now, but there are some things we have to leave out. It’s a different process than doing the Harry Potter books where it’s like a greatest hits. For Rent, it’s more about what works as a film.”
Keeping Rent Real: Family friendly Chris Columbus assures Rent fans that he understands the material. “Yeah, we’re going to have grit. So you don’t have to worry about grit. The funny thing is people only know me from my work, but I lived in a loft with mice, which inspired Gremlins as well. So I used to throw the key down to the woman who later became my wife to come up and see me, so I lived that existence. I knew those guys, I lived in that kind of world, so I’m just going to bring that to the movie.
The Theme of Rent: “I took my daughter to see it when I was trying to make up my mind. She said, ‘This movie could speak to everyone about not fitting in. You’re in high school and you feel like you’re on the outside of the group a little bit and you’re not really this Abercrombie and Fitch kind of person. It speaks to all of my friends.’ That’s why it’s important, particularly... the way the country is leaning these days in terms of gay marriages and not having tolerance for people that are different.”R Rated Rent: The Rent movie will be rated R, “unless the Academy changes,” said Columbus. “The great thing about Joe[Roth, president of Revolution Studios] is we were at another studio for a bit and they were concerned about the fact that it was going to be an R rated musical, and we just felt that when Joe got involved, he said, ‘Make it the way it was intended to be made.’”
Shooting Rent: Shooting begins in March of 2004 between New York and San Francisco. “Exteriors New York, Interiors San Francisco, but interiors being building sets, so I’d build the same sets here as I would [in New York]. I just want to be close to home to shoot, so if I’m building the interior life, I’m going to build it the same way here as I am there.
Return of the Musical: “I love Chicago and I thought Chicago was important for a selfish reason. It’s going to get Rent made. Because Chicago was successful and was a good movie, it’ll help us with Rent.”
Team America's Rent Spoof: “The Lease thing, I heard about it. I haven’t seen it. I was dying to see that movie because I liked the first South Park movie, but I haven’t seen this one yet. But I don't know. I heard it’s funny.”
Rosario Dawson Cast in Rent: “She came into the room and she was so real. She was just so real, I loved her. I thought, ‘Wow, she feels like this character.’ And her voice has a real kind of grit to it, a real earthy quality. I can’t explain until you hear her, but she has a lovely singing voice. This is a movie you can’t get away with like West Side Story having someone dub voices. I needed great singers for this movie.”
Keeping the Original Cast of Rent: “There was a blip in Entertainment Weekly abut me hiring some of the original cast members saying that they were too old," said Chris Columbus. "Well, they’re not too old. They still look like they’re in their ‘20s. Tom Collins, who’d be played by Jesse, could be older than the other cast members. It’s part of what Rent is. So I wrote them a letter which will be in the next Entertainment Weekly and it’s basically about the fact that these people created these characters and lived through Jonathan Larson’s death. And as a result, that show was a memorial to Jonathan for the 18 months that they were all in it together. And they’ve tried to recreate it with other cast members and sometimes they’re successful. They’ve taken it on the road. But it’s never had the emotional honesty or integrity that it did when those people were in it. So we looked at a lot of people and then I met individually with each one of these cast people. I needed to meet with the people I haven’t seen on screen. So Taye and Jesse, I haven’t met with but I see Jesse on Law and Order every week and I see Taye on his show so I know that they can still do the roles. But I’ve met with Idina Menzel and Adam Pascal. Daphne is seven months pregnant, so… We’re not going with Frenchie. I found someone new, a woman named Tracy Thoms, whose had a lot of experience, is a fantastic Joanne. Anyway, so these people have been through it and I wanted to capture that emotion on film, so I thought it would be great to get them all back together. I just felt that they bring something to it that you rarely get to see on screen, that experience. And I think it’s going to be interesting. If you have people too young, you have people that are 21 playing those roles on camera, on screen, I don't think you’d buy it. I think you have to believe that they’ve lived a little bit of a life. And anyway, they all look like they’re in their ‘20s and it’s going to be a remarkable movie just because of the sheer power.”